Glossary

Glossary

OpenShaker guide › Help

The words this guide uses, in plain language.

• Telemetry: live data a game sends about the car: revs, gear, speed, g-forces, wheel slip, suspension. OpenShaker converts every game's data into one common form.
• Effect: one kind of feeling, such as the engine, a gear kick or a kerb. There are 14.
• Preset: your settings for one game: each effect's strength and on/off switch. It is saved automatically.
• Profile: the calibration file that ships with OpenShaker for a game. It sets how each effect sounds and its calibrated level. You don't edit it. Forza Horizon 5 and 6 share one profile but have separate presets.
• Strength: the per-effect slider, 0-200 %. 100 % is the calibrated level.
• Master: one volume control for everything, 0-100 %.
• Calibrated level: the level a profile ships with. For Forza, ACE and BeamNG it was fitted to HaptiConnect's output on a ButtKicker PRO; for Trackmania it is a first guess.
• Silenced: an effect a preset ships at zero level. No strength setting makes it play.
• Hz (hertz): vibrations per second. Shakers work best at about 20-90 Hz.
• dB, dBFS: a loudness scale. 0 dBFS is the loudest a digital signal can be; -6 dB is about half the level.
• Limiter: the last stage before the shaker. It turns everything down briefly instead of letting peaks distort.
• Dropouts: moments when the audio stuttered. They are counted in the status line and tray.
• Rumble strip / kerb: the striped edge of a track. Forza Motorsport reports when a wheel is on one, and Assetto Corsa EVO sends a kerb signal; Forza Horizon never does.
• Wheel lock: a wheel stopping, or nearly stopping, under braking while the car still moves.
• Wheel slip / slide: wheels spinning faster than the car moves (wheelspin), or the car moving sideways (sliding).
• G-force (g): acceleration measured against gravity. 1 g ≈ 9.8 m/s².
• Data Out: Forza's setting that sends telemetry over the network. Its formats are "Sled" (no gear or pedal data), Horizon, and Motorsport "Car Dash".
• OutGauge: BeamNG's built-in dashboard data: revs, gear, pedals, dash lights, wheel speed.
• Motion Sim: BeamNG's built-in motion data: speed, g-forces and orientation.
• Shared memory: a block of memory a game publishes for other programs to read. Assetto Corsa EVO uses it.
• Openplanet: a free modding platform for Trackmania.
• Data Sender: an Openplanet plugin by ar that sends Trackmania car data to programs like OpenShaker.
• UDP / TCP port: a numbered "door" on your PC that game data arrives through. Only one program can listen on a given UDP port.
• WASAPI, shared mode: the Windows audio system OpenShaker prefers (it falls back to DirectSound or MME), in a mode that lets other apps play to the same device.
• HaptiConnect: ButtKicker's own app. The Forza, ACE and BeamNG presets were calibrated to match it.
• Tray / notification area: the icons next to the clock on the Windows taskbar.
• One-shot: an effect that plays a short sound once per event, such as a gear shift, a collision or a landing.
• Slip ratio: how much faster (spin) or slower (lock) a wheel turns than the road passes under it. 1.0 is roughly the grip limit.
• Slip angle: how far a tyre is sliding sideways. 1.0 is roughly the grip limit.

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See also: Effects overview · FAQ